Re: NBC: Circuit City Layoffs


"spoonful2" <spoonful2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1175283441.549590.222980@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Mar 30, 11:20?am, "Jim Mitchell" <jnjmi...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070328/ap_on_bi_ge/circuit_city_layoffs

"The electronics retailer, facing larger competitors and falling sales,

said Wednesday that it would lay off about 3,400 store >workers -
immediately - and replace them with lower-paid new hires as soon as
possible.>The laid-off workers, about 8 percent of the company's total
work force,

would get a severance package and a chance to >reapply for their former
jobs, at lower pay, after a 10-week delay, the company said."

How long before some of the usual suspects show up to praise this as part
of
the beauty of the "free market"?

And how is something like this not part of a much larger, insidious cycle?
Ford lays off 10,000 employees who make decent wages, thereby decreasing
the
number of people who can afford bigscreen TVs at Circuit City. CC gets rid
of a significant chunk of its higher-paid salespeople, and that combined
with the loss of the Ford incomes means that there are fewer people who
have
disposable incomes to drink Anheuser-Busch and Coors products. AB and
Coors
don't hire any more fulltime employees to replace their union workforce
that
is approaching retirement age, and fewer people are able to buy new Fords.
And we're right back where we started from. Isn't it essential to
capitalism that a healthy middle-class exists in order to invest back in
the
products made by the manufacturers who hold the capital? If there are
fewer
people left who can afford your goods, how does your company survive
beyond
the short-term?

It's a crappy thing, but as you stated in your first line it's a free
market. There's not a gun at their heads to work there, they are free
to work anywhere they like. They can even start there own electronics
store and hire everyone who was fired for the wage they earned.

You're absolutely right. Anyone who finds themselves impacted by sudden
unemployment is only in that position due to complacency and lack of
personal initiative. Who's wants to go in with me to open our own
electronics store and hire all those castoff CC salespeople? I know I've
got the means to do that on a whim.

Staples, Office Max, Best Buy or Office Depot can hire them at that
wage they earned if they are good at what they do.

Not sure about the others, but Best Buy does offer salaries competitive to
Circuit City. Certain positions at Home Depot may eventually rise to that
type of salary, but it's unlikely that they would hire anyone at that level
based on prior sales or retail experience.

As a consumer if
this bothers you then don't shop there. Form a boycot, get on the
news. Better than having unions, ask the automakers such as GM how
that's affecting the company.

Again, you're absolutely right. Top-heavy management and increasingly
uncreative and undesirable products have nothing to do with the financial
problems of the big 3. It's all about the union.


.

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